"She was in a hippity-hoppity mood that day because of the school party," he said.

Marion had been watching the interview on TV with her mother - who was filming it on her phone - and recognised the room and wandered off to find her dad while her mother was still distracted.

Kelly revealed was wearing casual jeans off camera, beneath his suit and tie and so could not stand up when Marion approached. This would explain why he remained bolted to his seat as she approached and never stood up.

He told the WSJ he wrote to the BBC to apologise as he had failed to lock the door but the broadcaster eagerly shared the clip.

BBC

Kim said: ""He usually locks the door... Most of the time they come back to me after they find the locked door. But they didn't. And then I saw the door was open. It was chaos for me."

Kelly said: "I saw the video like everybody else. My wife did a great job cleaning up a really unanticipated situation as best she possibly could...

"It was funny. If you watch the tape I was sort of struggling to keep my own laughs down. They're little kids and that's how things are... I made this minor mistake that turned my family into YouTube stars. It's pretty ridiculous."